Bowling game



A. E. PAGE May 24, 1938.

BOWLING GAME Filed: March 9, 1936 INVENTOR. A/phonseEPoye BY yam c. mac/4 ATTORNEY Patented May 24, 1938 BOWLING GAME Alphonse E. Page,

Niagara Falls, N. Y.

Application March 9, 1936, Serial No. 67,748

3 Claims.

This invention relates to a bowling game in which the player can causethe pins to be placed in the correct upright position by means operatedfrom the head of the bowling alley. The principal object of theinvention is to provide the player with a bowling alley equipped mannerthat at the can set in motion state the pins and in such a end ofaseries of throws he apparatus which. will reinreturn the balls withoutit being necessary for him to leave the head of the alley.

The bowling game to which my invention is appllcable differs somewhatfrom the ordinary game of'bowling. The same number of pins, however, isemployed.

The length of the alley is about the same as in the ordinary game, andthe weights of the balls are about the same. A larger number of ballscan be'used to advantage in my coordination with the sight are exercisedin a marked degree.

My modified bowling game is accompanying drawing in Figure l is a planview illustrated by the which: showing the pins and their mountingtogether with certain features of the pit, the runway, the alley;

and the adjacent portion of Figure 2 is a sectional elevation on theline II of Fig. 1;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary side elevation, illustrating the mounting of abowling pin in accordance with my invention;

Figure 4 is a fragmentary elevation showing a portion of the foot of abowling pin as seen from the head of the alley; and

Figure is a fragmentary plan view showing a Referring to the denotedrespectively modified construction for the foot of the alley.

drawing in detail, ten pins, by the first ten letters of the alphabet,are mounted on a frame 2, each pin being rigidly attached to a dependentfoot 3 that the player aims to tries to overthrow attached. The footstrike with a ball-when he the pin to which-the foot is 3 of each'pin isattached to a bracket 4 that is pivoted on a rod 5 as shown beingrigidly attached to the in is in the upright position,

a projection 6 from its supporting bracket 4 rests on the top of theframe 2 and is held there in the position shown in Fig. 3 by means of aspring clip 1 until the foot of the pin is struck by a ball thrown downthe alley 8. When a pin is overthrown the force of the impact on thefoot and subsequently the weight of the body of the pin swing it aroundthe pivot 5 into an approximately horizontal position.

The frame 2 and the bowling pins that it carries are mounted over thepit 9 whose inclined surface I I receives the balls after they haverolled along the alley toward the dependent feet of the bowling pins.When a ball is thrown by a player along the alley toward the pins itrolls over the edge of the alley adjacent to the pit and then movesthrough the space above the floor of the pit in a trajectory (which is aparabolic curve) until it strikes the foot of a pin or the floor of thepit. After a ball has struck the foot of one pin it may be deflectedsufficiently to strike the foot of another pin before it reaches thefloor of the pit. The fioor of the pit is so inclined and shapedthateach ball after landing on the floor ll rolls on through a rearopening l2 into a storage pit l3 where the balls that have been thrownremainuntil they are required again for use at the head of the alley.

When it is desired to effect the return of the balls to the head of thealley for another series of throws, an electric motor I4 is started (forexample by depositing a coin in a slot at the head of the alley) for thepurpose of running the elevator I5 for a period of time which is limitedby means of a time switch. The storage pit I3 is so inclined that theballs are moved by gravity in succession toward the running elevator l5where the balls are caught successively by means of a series of forks l6that are attached to an endless chain I! that forms the carryingmechanism of the elevator. This endless chain is driven by the electricmotor M with the aid of a pair of'pulleys as indicated in Fig. 2 of thedrawing. As each ball passes over the upper pulley it rolls oil on tothe runway l8 and then rolls down to the head of the alley within easyreach of the player.

The pins which have been overthrown with the use of a set of balls (forexample a standard set of seven balls for this modified bowling game)are returned to an upright position by the operation of a frame 2| whichis moved to the left (as seen in Fig. l and Fig. 2) by means of the pushrods 22 which form (along with the connecting rods 23) a rigid frameworkwhich is slidably mounted under the frame 2. The framework has a slotconnection with each of two arms 24 which are rigidly attached to theshaft 25. The shaft 25 is rotatably mounted in bearings 26 and isprovided near one end with an arm 21. The outer end of the arm 21 isconnected to a cord 28 which can be pulled by the player at the head ofthe alley. By pulling this cord the shaft 21 is turned in acounterclockwise direction as seen in Fig. 2 and the framework under themember 2 is moved in a direction toward the alley and presses againstthe feet of the pins, which have been overthrown and restores-them to anupright position. After the tension in cord 28 has ceased, the springs29, which have been compressed as a result of the pulling of the cord,expand and return the shaft 21 and the connected framework to theiroriginal positions.

The end of the alley adjacent the pit is shown as cut away in a generalV shape. If the player makes astraight throw for the pin a he may expectto see his bail roll over the apex of the V and strike the foot of thepin a and overthrow it. In order to put a premium on such straightthrows I propose to link together the pins 0., e, h, and i, as indicatedat 33 in Fig. 2, so that impact of a ball against the foot of theforemost pin overthrows four pins. In order to overthrow the remainingpins the player must roll balls over the edges of the V indicatedrespectively as 3| and 32 in Fig. 1. The edge 3| is parallel to a linepassing through the centers of the plus a, b, d, and y when these pinsare all in an upright position.

The edge 32 has a similar relationship to the pins a, c, f, and y. Aball that strikes the foot of the pin b may fall down to the floor ofthe pit without striking any other pins. A ball that strikes the foot ofthe pin 17 may, however, be deflected so that it subsequently strikesthe foot of the pin d. In this case the player may therefore overthrowtwo pins with the same ball.

I propose to provide the player with seven balls, although he may notneed this number to overthrow ten pins. In general the player will needa greater number of throws to overturn the ten pinsthan is permitted ina regular bowling game. My new bowling game presents a variety ofpossible situations arising from the order in which the pins are struck.

Instead of making the edges of the V straight as indicated in Fig. 1,they may be stepped as indicated at 3| and 32' in Fig. 5. The stepsindicated in Fig. 5 are so-arranged with respect to the pins that whenthe player for example sends a ball over the middle point of the shortedge 35 the ball will strike the foot of the pin d if the necessity offrequent trips to set up the pins in place and to return the balls, andwithout the need for help from attendants who stay around the pit toperform such services for the players. The running expenses areconsequently decreased in my bowling game. The installation for mybowling game can be set up at summer resorts, for example, where theexpense of constructing and maintaining a bowling alley of the ordinarytype would be prohibitive.

My new bowling game gives abundant opportunity for the exercise ofstrength and skill. While the apparatus indicated in the drawing anddescribed in the specification is capable of a number of variations, thegeneral character of the game and the apparatus used therein are definedin the following claims.

I claim:

1. A bowling game installation comprising an alley in which the mainsurface on which the balls are rolled is similar in form to that of astandard bowling alley but in which the foot of the alley terminates ina V-shaped edge over which the balls roll into the space overlying thefloor of a terminal pit, a frame rigidly mounted above the floor of thepit and spaced from said V-shaped edge, a plurality of bowling pinssupported on said frame and mounted for rotation from an initialvertical position to an approximately horizontal position as a. resultof impact from a ball, the portions of the pins above the greater than apredetermined minimum velocity.

2. A bowling game installation comprising a frame that carries aplurality of pins each of which is mounted for limited rotation about ahorizontally disposed fixed axis in theframe, the upper part of the pinabove said axis resembling a standard bowling pin and the lower part ofthe pin below said axis having an extensive surface concave toward theplayer, so that the impact and weight of a ball colliding with the lowerpart of the pin cause the upper part of the pin to be thrown downwardlyin a horizontal position toward the player, a pit underneath the frameinto which the lower parts of the pins project when the pins areupright, and a runway whichis spaced'from the frame so thata ball throwndown the runway by the player strikes the lower part of the pin withinthe volume of the pit.

3. The bowling game installation described in claim 2 in which two ormore pins are interconnected by means of links pivotally connected tothe pins in such a manner that the impact of a bowling ball against thefoot of one of the connected pins overthrows all of said connected pins.

ALPHONSE- E. PAGE.

